Review: Chef’s Choice by TJ Alexander

Title: Chef’s Choice

Series: Chef’s Kiss: Book Two

Author: TJ Alexander

Length: 336 Pages

Category: Transgender Romance, Contemporary Romance

Rating: 4 Stars

At a Glance: While Chef’s Choice confronts some weighty topics, at its heart it’s a joyful story too. It’s a story about being proud of who you are, and how there is no one right way to be your authentic self.

Reviewed By: Lisa

Blurb: When Luna O’Shea is unceremoniously fired from her frustrating office job, she tries to count her blessings: she’s a proud trans woman who has plenty of friends, a wonderful roommate, and a good life in New York City. But blessings don’t pay the bills.

Enter Jean-Pierre, a laissez-faire trans man and the heir to a huge culinary empire—which he’ll only inherit if he can jump through all the hoops his celebrity chef grandfather has placed in his path. First hoop: he needs a girlfriend, a role that Luna is happy to play…for the right price. She’s got rent to pay, after all! Second hoop: they both need to learn how to cook a series of elaborate, world-renowned family recipes to prove that Jean-Pierre is a worthy heir. Admittedly, Luna doesn’t even know how to crack an egg, but she’s not going to let that—or any pesky feelings for Jean-Pierre—stop her.

Review: Luna O’Shea hasn’t met a cloud that she won’t try to spin a silver lining around. She may not always succeed, but at least she tries. She’s a supportive friend, a proud transgender woman, and knows what she wants for her future, even if she’s not entirely sure how she’ll achieve it.

Then Luna gets fired from her job as an executive assistant, and even she can’t spin that into a positive.

TJ Alexander uses this setup as a chance to bring together two people who couldn’t be more different if they tried. Jean-Pierre Aubert-Treffle is a confident—some might even say a bit arrogant at times—transgender man who comes from a family of world-renowned chefs. He’s got money to burn and travels the world over, checking in on his grandfather’s restaurant empire since Jean-Pierre himself hasn’t followed in the family’s culinary footsteps. He also has something to prove to his papi: that he, Jean-Pierre, should be named the rightful heir to the family legacy. His grandfather, however, has other ideas, and it’s a contest of wills between them that Luna becomes entangled in.

The fake relationship trope does the heavy romantic lifting in Chef’s Choice, when Jean-Pierre offers Luna an eye-popping sum of money to pretend to be his girlfriend. The kind of money that could help her realize her long-term dreams. The kind of money that would be impossible to turn down. Forced proximity for the sake of leading the paparazzi precisely where Jean-Pierre wants them to go, to publicize his whirlwind romance, gets off to a rocky start. That’s where the substance of this sweet and angsty story resides.

Alexander delivers more than a simple foodie romance in their sophomore novel. They delve into trans joy and the things that cis folks can’t possibly know, such as what it feels like to be misgendered, being denied that simple dignity, and to have family members who refuse to acknowledge you for who you are. The last refers to Jean-Pierre’s mother and grandfather, specifically. They are the discernable villains of the story, and it gave me immense pleasure to see how the author dealt with them.

While Chef’s Choice confronts some weighty topics, at its heart it’s a joyful story too. It’s a story about being proud of who you are, and how there is no one right way to be your authentic self. And, of course, it’s about two lovely people who meet by accident but fall in love very much on purpose.

You can buy Chef’s Choice here:
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